Sara Lance’s eleventh birthday was - in her words - the worst ever. She didn’t get the only thing she wanted, which was to spend her birthday at the beach.
Her family had recently been informed that Sara’s malignant brain tumor was no longer treatable. Upon receiving this news, the family - parents Dave and Linda, brother Adam and sister Elizabeth - decided to take some time and travel to places Sara wanted to visit. They went to Niagara Falls and to spend time with Sara’s aunts and cousins on their Pennsylvania farms; after a short stop back in Struthers they headed to South Carolina to visit Sara’s paternal grandfather, also battling cancer. During the drive south, Sara’s 17-year-old brother Adam suddenly became ill and was admitted to a hospital in North Carolina for viral cardiomyopathy - a virus attacking his heart. The following day Sara was also admitted to a hospital in NC for flu-like symptoms; she was released after 24 hours, but her brother was kept for another day. Sara’s grandmother and great-aunt left Ohio on July 10th to meet the family and help Sara’s parents drive her, Adam, and Elizabeth back home to continue treatment with their own doctors.
On July 11, the morning of Sara’s birthday, both vehicles headed north. They all stopped for lunch at a Cracker Barrel in Jonesville, NC. Sara, who had been having some difficulties swallowing due to the tumor, choked on her food and blacked out. By the time paramedics arrived, she had no pulse and had stopped breathing despite the efforts of two pediatric nurses who were dining at the same restaurant. The EMTs continued to work on Sara in the ambulance, finally expelling an object about the size of a small peach pit. After x-rays, examinations, and a consult with her doctors in Ohio, she was released and they continued home. Needless to say, Sara did not get to the beach for her birthday.
Because she didn’t get to go to the beach, friends and neighbors in Struthers brought the beach to Sara! At a belated birthday party on July 18, her neighbors had a load of sand brought in and placed in their yard next to the pool along with two life-sized artificial palm trees, and the back yard was transformed into a tropical paradise. Sara’s paternal grandmother had a small container of ocean water and sand shipped overnight from a friend in Maine; with her wheelchair parked in the sandy “beach”, Sara got to wriggle her toes in the sand and touch and smell the ocean while she was greeted by over 75 friends, neighbors, and family members.
Besides the neighbor’s “beach”, another neighbor donated a gift certificate they had won - pony rides from Pony Tails of Canfield (who also donated additional time so each child got a ride); a Struthers police cruiser was brought to the party for the kids to explore. One of Struthers’ firefighters brought a fire truck for the kids to climb on and gave each child a toy fire hat, and the Struthers K-9 officer, Rebel, and his handler also visited Sara and her guests. Sara had such a good time that even though she was exhausted and in pain, she didn’t want to go home, but rather wanted to stay at the event for as long as she possibly could.
Sara Lance passed away just four days after her party. She was a vibrant, sparkling, bright, talented little girl whose life ended almost before it began. I relay to help find a cure for this horrific disease, so there are no more Saras in the world.
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